Mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

With mobile CRM, information no longer has to wait. Anytime/anywhere data access makes information available, analyzable and actionable. Transactions are accomplished in real time, business cycles are reduced and customers are served more timely. However, despite the increasing releases of new devices, the omnipresence of wireless and the pace of mobile solutions released from CRM software vendors, this industry remains in its infancy in many ways. This community forum is designed to share and collaborate research, resources, best practices and insight in order to better select and deploy mobile CRM systems.

Mobile CRM

The mobile CRM industry is evolving at an increased pace. Mobile CRM is morphing with social CRM to increase utility and keep customer facing staff empowered in real time and engaged with customers. However, for mobile to truly deliver, information must be accessible across devices, available in real time, easily extracted and integrated with customer relationship management systems.

Mobile CRM Thought Leaders In Their Own Words

William (Bill) Band, VP and Principal Analyst for Forrester Research, shares highlights and best practices from his recent mobile CRM research. He also discusses specific use cases and business processes empowered by mobility, describes a five step mobile deployment approach and identifies the pitfalls to mitigate when planning your mobile CRM project.

Rebecca Wettemann, VP and founding partner of Nucleus Research, published a research report that found adding mobile device access to CRM made sales people 14.6% more productive, adding social and mobile access together increased productivity by 26.4%, that 74% of organizations have enabled some form of mobile CRM access and that 67% of mobile CRM users use an iPhone.

Featured Mobile CRM Articles

Despite a spectacular rise in smartphone and tablet adoption, mobile CRM remains sporadic and under-utilized for most businesses, and of the few mobile CRM adopters, most fail to achieve sustained user adoption and a positive ROI. This article identifies the disconnect between mobility and CRM, why so many mobile deployments don’t go well and the right steps to achieve mobile CRM success.

Mobile CRM isn't a downsized CRM experience as much as it's a more purposeful and specialized experience. The design behind that experience should help the user focus on the one or few things that matter most or support specific use cases. Here is a proven approach and some best practices to achieve the elusive mobile CRM user experience benefits.

Retail sales and marketing strategies are increasingly fluid as they try to keep up with consumer movements. Effectively implementing retail mobile technologies is an area where many retailers struggle. Here I share some good market research and retail best practices for clienteling, mobile marketing, SoLoMo, retail mobile apps and mobile POS.

The way you deploy mobile CRM, the devices you choose, and the creativity you exhibit all make a big difference when it comes to achieving results. Here are 7 methods to improve staff productivity with mobile CRM. We're talking about productivity beyond the obvious ability to access contacts. We're talking about enabling faster, better communication to decrease costs and increase top line revenues.

A visual IVR mobile interface delivers a visual representation of the IVR menu. It's a simple and innovative concept with some big benefits for both consumers and contact centers. Call centers experience a significant reduction in inbound call volume while customers get a direct and fast access to their CRM data, better routing, low to no holding time, and an improved customer experience.

Mobile CRM has historically been more of a discussion topic, or perhaps a CRM vendor press release opportunity, than a tool routinely leveraged by customer facing staff. However, this mobile CRM review clearly shows that CRM systems are morphing traditional Customer Relationship Management, social media and mobile computing into a single, portable and productive user experience.

Making customer, product or other business information available in real-time and from any location facilitates a strong business case for adopting mobile CRM. However, the vastly different advantages of various mobile CRM apps as well as the dizzying array of devices, browsers and form factors suggest a proven approach to make the best decision.

SAP is suggesting that its acquisition of Sybase, and the combination of the world's best business software with the world's most powerful mobile infrastructure platform, is a boon for mobile users who will now be able to gain ERP expertise and power on their mobile devices. Will such a move truly accelerate business systems mobility?

Mobile CRM Facts & Figures

Gartner forecasts the mobile CRM app market will grow 500% by 2014, from 200 mobile CRM apps in 2013 to more than 1,200 mobile CRM apps available from app stores by 2014.

According to Gartner, 90% of enterprise apps will be both desktop and mobile by 2017; up from 20% in 2013.

Nucleus Research reports that mobile CRM improves sales staff productivity by 14.6 percent. The analyst firm also reports that the iPhone is the most common device for accessing CRM systems, making up 67 percent of mobile CRM users.

According to ABI Research, 240 million enterprise business customers will leverage cloud computing services from their mobile devices by 2015 - the same year the enterprise mobile cloud computing market will hit $5.2 billion revenues, largely driven by expansion of cloud-based IT services and more business customers using cellular connected devices.

Gartner reports that by 2016, two-thirds of all Internet traffic will be viewed on mobile devices.

Frank Gens/IDC Predictions Team forecasts that the mobility explosion will continue, with huge device volumes, new form factors, and millions (yes, millions) of mobile apps.